2017 ANNUAL REPORT

Artificial Intelligence and
the Internet of Things

Intelligence anywhere. Anytime.

Data without analytics is value not yet realized. By bringing analytics to wherever there is data, everyone and everything will be able to make more intelligent decisions. Fueled by data and aided by analytics, organizations can uncover new relationships, identify never before seen patterns, automate tasks and gain new understanding of the world around us.

Artificial intelligence = analytics innovation

Data is all around us. The Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors have the ability to harness large volumes of data, while artificial intelligence (AI) can learn patterns in the data to automate tasks for a variety of business benefits.

SAS® leads the pack for analytics innovation in a breadth of industries where we experience the human benefits of smart vehicles, smart stores and smart cities. SAS works with major vehicle manufacturers, helping them equip cars and trucks of the future to be safer and more responsive to human needs and interaction. And SAS helps analyze streams of biometric data flowing from wireless, wearable medical devices that allow patients to remain at home while under a physician’s care instead of enduring long hospital stays.

SAS has been delivering AI and machine learning technologies to customers for decades. We continue to innovate AI capabilities in contemporary areas such as deep learning, computer vision, natural language, forecasting and optimization.

SAS has the ability to bring together the data scientist community like no other solution can.

Shawn Hushman, VP of Decision Sciences of Cox Automotive

Intelligence across the Internet of Things

Industry analyst firm IDC estimates the size of the analytics market in IoT will grow to over $23 billion by 2020. No matter where data lives – edge devices, data centers or in the cloud – you need to get the most out of your IoT data, mining and analyzing it to detect patterns as events occur.

To help customers realize this tremendous potential, SAS created a new global division devoted to IoT. Bringing together R&D, marketing, product management, enablement and channel sales, the IoT division develops, delivers and supports powerful IoT analytics software that covers the entire analytics life cycle – batch, streaming and edge – all designed to help customers create value from their IoT investments. The SAS IoT division develops new partnerships and expands existing ones to bring together best-in-class technology and expertise.

For example, in 2017, SAS and Cisco unveiled the Cisco SAS Edge-to-Enterprise IoT Analytics Platform. It brings together all the hardware and software needed to analyze IoT data so customers do not need to build an IoT platform from scratch. SAS brings similar benefits to customers through long-standing partnerships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Intel.

Key technology for the new IoT division is SAS Event Stream Processing, which analyzes high-velocity data while in motion so action can be taken immediately. SAS Analytics for IoT helps customers make fast, confident decisions while reducing bandwidth and storage costs. And it covers the full analytics life cycle – from data capture and integration to analytics and deployment.

The analytics life cycle is the process of extracting intelligence and value from data – and SAS continues to be at the forefront of perfecting this process. You need to be able to access data from anywhere, prepare it for analysis, analyze it and then ensure the insights can be visualized, shared and put into operational environments. This may sound easy, but in reality it is incredibly difficult. Unless you have the SAS Platform.

The SAS Platform supports the complete analytics life cycle, empowering teams to more easily extract value from data and make decisions that drive growth. Our software foundation is engineered to create intelligence and value from any type of data – whether you are using a single API, one product, a suite of products or an entire industry solution. SAS offers the ability to scale processing power as needed; the option for real-time modeling with SAS Event Stream Processing; and the flexibility to call upon multiple languages or skill sets – all with the ease of discovery and deployment in one unifying platform.

Enhancements to the platform through SAS® Viya® and the transitioning of core SAS Analytics technologies deliver even more capabilities to your analytics-driven organization. The SAS Platform includes new managed software-as-a-service offerings on the SAS Cloud and continues to support public or private cloud deployments.

SAS is also making it easier for customers to build artificial intelligence solutions by incorporating AI capabilities such as machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, forecasting and optimization – enabling new capabilities for organizations.

The SAS Platform enables you to gain intelligence from your data across the entire analytics life cycle. It provides you the complete ability to access data from anywhere, prepare it for analysis, analyze it and make it operational.